Former Wildcat Closing in on History

Posted: Sat 1:03 PM, Aug 18, 2007

ATLANTA (AP) - Brandon Webb was 9 years old - and not much of aballplayer - when Orel Hershiser threw more scoreless innings in arow than anyone in baseball history. "That was my first year in Little League," Webb recalled. "Iwas probably sitting out there in right field, because I wasawful." Awful? Really? "Oh, yeah. I was terrible," Webb replied. "I was getting inthe minimum innings I had to play in the game, two or something,and getting my one minimum at-bat, then going to sit down on thebench for the rest of the game." He took up pitching the following year. Now, he's closing in on Hershiser. The Arizona Diamondbacks ace tossed a two-hitter Friday nightfor his third straight shutout and stretched his scoreless streakto 42 innings, the 12th-longest in baseball history. After beating the Atlanta Braves 4-0, Webb finds himself 18innings away - two more shutouts exactly - from breakingHershiser's record of 59 straight scoreless innings in 1988. "Just two more shutouts? Oh, I should have that no problem,"Webb said facetiously, rolling his eyes. "It's in the backpocket." It will be if he keeps pitching like this. The Braves came intothe game with the NL's best average (.278) and third in the leaguein runs scored (4.96 per game), but they never had a chance againstlast year's NL Cy Young winner. Kelly Johnson blooped a double to center in the fourth. JeffFrancoeur went the opposite way for a fifth-inning single, and waspromptly erased with a double play. Mark Teixeira drew a walk inthe seventh. That was it. Webb faced two hitters above the minimum, got aheadin the count 21 of 29 times and went to three balls on just twobatters. "He threw what he wanted when he wanted," Francoeur said."All night he was a step ahead of us." Chris Young, who homered twice for the Diamondbacks, had morefun watching Webb pitch from center field. "I'd much rather be on his team than facing him," Young said."You see the way his ball moves, and now he's got his off-speedpitches working better than ever. As a hitter, you just don't knowwhat to think up there." Webb (13-8) isn't one of those guys who claims ignorance of hisstats. He knows how many scoreless innings he's thrown already, andhow many it will take to catch Hershiser. "I know where I'm at," Webb said. "It's going to be realtough to do, but I'm going to go out there and try to throw upzeros as much as I can." He became the first pitcher since Hershiser to go at least 40innings without giving up a run and just the 21st pitcher inbaseball history to reach that level of stinginess. It's not like the Diamondbacks are scoring a lot of runs forWebb, either. His previous start was a five-hit, 1-0 win overWashington, and he was clinging to another 1-0 lead when MarkReynolds gave Arizona some breathing room with a mammoth two-runhomer off Lance Cormier in the eighth. "It doesn't really affect me what the score is," Webb said."I do know if it's 1-0 that I need to bear down and not make toomany mistakes. When you get those second, third and fourth runslike we did, you can breathe little bit. It's lets you go right at'em and attack the hitters." Webb got a bit of a scare in the final inning. Not wanting towalk speedy Willie Harris, he left a pitch over the plate andwatched it sail toward deep right. "I was like, 'Just go right after him. I don't think he can hitone out.' And, boom, he got a good piece on it," Webb said."Luckily, there was the humidity here and it's a fairly deep park,so it stayed in." Justin Upton settled under the long fly, a few feet short of thewarning track. "Things are just going my way," Webb said. He started his streak nearly a month ago, in a defeat of allthings. Webb didn't allow a run in the final inning of his 6-2 lossto the Chicago Cubs on July 20. He's won five in a row since, going seven innings apiece in winsover Florida and San Diego before beginning his stretch of shutoutswith a 3-0 win at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hershiser was with the Dodgers when he set the record. The onlyother pitchers since 1940 to put together a longer streak than Webbare Don Drysdale (58), Bob Gibson (47) and Sal Maglie (45). Over the last five starts, Webb has worked 41 innings, giving up23 hits, seven walks and striking out 35. He's tied with RubeFoster at No. 12 on the scoreless list. "It's a little weird," Webb said. "When I do give up a run,I'm sure I will be a little down. It's going to happen sometime."

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